Sam Mellinger: Chiefs whiff on chance to improve at QB

[Rain Man]

I'm a little confused by the salary cap stuff. At first I was hearing that we were way under the cap and had something like $40M in room. Then later I heard that it was only $15M and that the Broncos were way under (as if they follow the rules anyway).

If cap space dictated that we couldn't pay a $90M contract over 5 years, then it is what it is. But that's not what I was reading at first.

The biggest problems to me are:

1. The fact that Manning wouldn't talk to us at all, and why, which is a bigger issue than not signing with us in the end.
2. The fact that we let Orton go when he was a clear upgrade over Cassel.
3. Not drafting a QB twice when we had top-five picks. In hindsight some of the obvious choices were mediocre or busts, so does that mean we have really good talent scouting or does it mean that we didn't want a QB?

Not trading up in the draft doesn't bother me. Those trades are always highly risky.

Pioli is doing a good job in fixing everything else, and he seems to identify the problems well. So is he just not finding the right QB and waiting until the right one comes along, or is he too wedded to Cassel to look? Finding the next Brady could take decades, but I think the team could do quite well with the next Donovan McNabb or Matt Schaub or Matt Hasselbeck while we're waiting for the next Brady.